San Francisco May Vote on Circumcision Ban

Activists submit signatures for ballot initiative
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 27, 2011 9:47 AM CDT
San Francisco May Vote on Circumcision Ban
No comment.   (Shutterstock)

Is San Francisco about to cut out circumcision? A group of "intactivists" hope so; they’ve submitted 12,265 signatures to the city’s Department of Elections in a bid to get a ban on the practice placed on the ballot this November, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. If even 7,168 of the signatures check out, voters will be able to weigh in on the ban, which would apply to everyone under age 18.

Proponents gathered outside city hall yesterday to hand in the signatures, wearing pins reading, “May the foreskin be with you.” Some said they’d been circumcised as infants, and weren’t happy about it. “I discovered my sexuality and body had been impacted by this—for no reason and without my consent,” said one man who’d collected 300 signatures. “To cut any body part off somebody who can’t consent, to me is just madness.” (More circumcision stories.)

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